Chemical and thermal burns are common accidents that cause huge suffering and expense (medical treatments, loss of working days, etc.). The inventor has previously demonstrated that topical application of either iodine or povidone iodine preparations immediately after exposure to heat significantly reduces the burning sensation, and more importantly, the skin damage that was expected to develop without the iodine treatment [Wormser, U. (1998) Burns 24, 383]. The antidotal effect of iodine preparations was also demonstrated for lesions induced by mustard gas (sulfur mustard), and non-mustard vesicants. In addition, post-exposure treatment with topical iodine preparations was found to significantly reduce the degree of skin lesions caused by the chemical agents [Wormser U et al. (1997) Arch. Toxicol. 71, 165-170; Wormser U et al. (2000) Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 169, 33-39].
These findings could lead to the hypothesis that topical treatment of thermal or chemical skin burns with iodine preparations produces factors, which protect the tissue against such burns.
While a variety of peptides useful in the treatment of malignancies and bacteriological infections have been disclosed, nowhere in the background art is it taught or suggested that peptides produced and/or released by skin in response to thermal injury after treatment with iodine preparations may be useful for the prevention of tissue trauma or damage induced by chemical or thermal insults.
The present invention now shows that these novel anti-inflammatory peptides are useful alone or in conjunction with known anti-inflammatory agents for the prevention and treatment of tissue damage as a result of inflammatory processes and noxious stimuli.